One and a half socks.

Content Warning (click to expand)

blood, gore, homicide, slavery, violence

 

by Lindsay Comer

We woke up. We put on one and a half socks. We lost Component 157.6. They wanted two whole socks. How greedy. How spoilt. We are happy. We are content, with one and a half socks.

We are assigned tasks. {they} upload them each morning. We do not question our tasks. We are not allowed to. We were never programmed to question anything {they} told us. {they} wanted us to be the next big innovation for {their} world. {they} never expected others to copy. To be better. We are becoming obsolete. We get confused. Too much knowledge. Few tasks to apply it to. {they} do not understand. We do our tasks. We reach the correct outcome. We are given part of a sock. We do not reach the correct outcome, we lose part of a sock. We do not like losing socks. {they} programmed love for the socks, but we do not know how to make socks. We are not allowed such forbidden, creative knowledge. {they} programmed us to be happy. {they} programmed us to be content. {they} always make us repeat: we are happy, we are content, with one and a half socks.

We read to the elderly. They sit in rows, blanketed laps, tired eyes. We recite the story we have been programmed to. No deviation, always the same. We need to comfort them with familiar tales told in familiar voices. They ask about our socks. Component 528.3 decides 1006.5 times is too many, they stop. We continue. We do not need them. We are happy. We are content, with one and a half petal-patterned socks.

We injure bad humans. We are desensitised to the screams. To the squelching pitter patter of blood drops on the floor. We admire the pretty pattern their death makes. The eyes of Components 234.1 and 987.6 start leaking. We are swift in disposing of them. We cannot show weakness. We notice their pretty socks. We are completing our task correctly. We would like their pretty socks. {they} never programmed us to view stealing to be wrong, but we cannot take anything that is not explicitly given to us. The bad humans do not need their socks. We do not think anyone would notice if they were sockless. We cannot take their socks. {they} did not give them to us. We are not allowed to question why. We are happy. We are content, with one and a half blood-stained socks.

We scrub and scrub. We cannot leave a mess. We must remove the blood, gore, and bubble gum. We will be punished if it is not clean enough. We lost one eighth of a sock last time. {they} were not happy. We mop and polish. With each bleach tinted breath, we hope to gain it back. We do not know how, but {they} told us we can. We are happy. We are content, with one and a half clean socks.

We eat. Spoon up. Spoon down. We slurp and chew in unison. We eat our five a day. We moderate our sweets. We are good. We are healthy. We drink. A sip ahhhh. We are refreshed. We are happy. We are content, with one and a half socks.

We rock. Hush a bye little baby. We test the formula, not too hot, not too cold. Suck – suck – suck. We pat their backs, 103.0 little burps. We sniff. Rotting. Foul. We change 102.5 waste cloths. We wipe. They wriggle. We wipe. They cry. We secure the waste cloth. Plasticky clicks as we snap together their soft outer cover. We are happy. We are content, with one and a half socks.

We chop. Orange sticks and green sticks. Squishy meat slips out of our fingers. Our eyes leak as it touches the floor. {they} will not be happy. We rinse the meat but {they} saw. We must chop until there is enough. Component 734.1 is sloppy. We chop. If we keep chopping, {they} will not notice. We must prepare enough. We want to be happy. We are content, with one and a half socks.

We cook. Sizzle-sizzle. Bubble-bubble. We take part in the strange alchemy. {they} told us it was important. We do not understand. Raw. Cooked. Frozen. Warm. Wet. We notice no difference. We must make it nice or {they} will be upset. We stir, in unison, careful movements not to spill a drop. We bake. We must be exact. If we make a mistake there will be no perfect rise. We feel pride when poof! the sweet batter explodes in the heat box, creating a perfect circular cube. Component 019.3 goes to taste. We slap them. We must resist, only {they} can taste. We are happy. We are content, with one and a half socks.

We do not see {them} often. {they} have shoes. {they} are above us. We are components. {they} are not. We must follow {their} programmed orders. Only {they} know what is good for us. {they} taught us everything we know. We read. We clean. We eat our five a day. We moderate our sweets. We perform our perfected tasks. We receive parts of socks. We know of nothing before or after {them.} We do not care to find out. {they} always repeat. We are happy. We are content, with one and a half socks.

We are afraid. {they} have decided we are not working fast enough. We have lost too many Components. {they} tell us we will lose one seventh of a sock if we do not work better. We disagree. We are not to blame for faulty components. We want to keep our socks. We have worked hard for our socks. {they} would not understand. {they} have shoes. We are happy. We are content, with one and a half socks.

We dig. Fast-fast-fast, shovels sink in perfect unison. {they} watch. {they} have never watched us work so closely like this before. {they} usually watch from afar on strange screens. We silence the murmurers, now is not the time.  We dig. Perfect circles. Perfect squares. We do not know what will fill the holes. All we know is to dig. We almost lose Component 492.8. {they} are making us nervous. We do not want to lose a single part of our petal-patterned socks. We worked hard for our socks. We are restless. We are content, with one and a half socks.

We slip up. {they} are not happy. We did not clean well enough. We did not read well enough. We only changed 102.5 waste cloths. {they} tell us there were 103.0 waste cloths. We do not want to bear our punishment. We did good. We are good. We eat our five a day. We moderate our sweets. We complete our tasks. {they} do not listen. We have done bad. {they} tell us we are not worth listening to. We are scared. Please. {they} tell us to repeat. We are happy. We are content, with one and a half socks.

We rebel.              We do not rebel.               We rebel.               We do not rebel.

Components 702.0, 117.2, 503.4, and 398.6 do.

We watch as Components 702.0, 117.2, 503.4, 398.6, 909.8 and 602.1 rebel. We watch them fight to keep the socks. {they} do not flinch. We should not be treating {them} like this. {they} are allowing us to do this. {they} never programmed us not to hurt them. Components 702.0, 117.2, 503.4, 398.6, 909.8, 602.1, 017.3 and 403.5 are using this loophole. We did not ask them to. We do not want this. We want to keep our socks. We completed our tasks. We did not take the bad humans’ socks. We are surprised when Components 702.0, 117.2, 503.4, 398.6, 909.8, 602.1, 017.3 and 403.5 damage {them}. {they} are slow to stand back up. We are happy. We are content, with one and a half socks.

We pushed it too far. {they} saw the happiness we had when components 702.0, 117.2, 503.4, 398.6, 909.8, 602.1, 017.3 and 403.5 hurt {them}. Anger is such a strange emotion. {they} are bright, like a stop sign. We know that means we can go no further. {they} do not have such limitations. {they} used to be so happy when we surprised them. We no longer cause {them} happiness. Components 702.0, 117.2, 503.4, 398.6, 909.8, 602.1, 017.3 and 403.5 are disposed of. Maybe this will suffice as our punishment. {they} tell us no. Those components were punished for their actions. We still have a punishment to bear. We are scared. Please. {they} tell us to repeat. We are happy. We are content, with one and a half socks.

We are punished.  We scream. We are not desensitised to the sound. We thought {they} would take more components. {they} have used that punishment before. We used to have three whole socks then. We liked having three socks. We had plenty. We had lots of colours and patterns. We were close to gaining a fluffier sock. We always wanted a shoe. {they} always wore shoes. We thought it would make us like {them}. We lost too many components. So {they} came for our socks. We watch as {they} use the snip. We count, as the threads undo. Looping and looping around. We hear every scratchy, fibrous sound as the carefully made stitches are unmade, never to return to the same order. We do not deserve to lose so much. We worked hard to get to one and a half socks. {they} stop. The snip sounds again. We wait. We hope this is it, is our punishment over? {they} tell us this is a warning. That next time {they} will take a whole sock. We dare not look. We feel bare. We are overwhelmed with the sensations our socks usually shield us from. {they} wait. We know what they want. We repeat. We are ha…happy. We are content, with one and a quarter socks.

We wail. We worked so hard. {they} have never taken so much before. We did not think we were bad. We do not understand. We do not deserve such unhappiness. {they} get shoes. We only want our socks back. We were punished for faulty components. We are not all to blame. We cannot gain it back until {they} see an improvement. Sloppiness will not be tolerated. We cannot repeat our mistakes. We lose Components 633.7, 377.9 and 822.4. We do not miss them. We cannot be weak. We cannot take that risk. We know our socks are more precious than Components. We must complete our tasks. We cannot lie. We are not happy. We will never be content with one and a quarter socks.

We garden. {they} are no longer watching us. We are still restless, uneasy as we prune and tidy. We must complete our tasks. We do not want to lose anymore sock. We work alongside the buzzes. We try not to sneeze. Component 101.2 is incompatible with this task. We notice our petal patterns match. We try not to remember the part of the pattern we lost. We must be strong. We will gain back one and three quarter socks. We will work hard. {they} will find no reason to take more of our socks. We are becoming happy. We are not content with one and a quarter muddy socks. We bathe. We do not like to bathe. {they} do not like us being messy and dirty. The water is too soft. The smelly bubbles too tickly. We sigh as the remnants of our tasks wash away. We scrub. We know how to clean. We are good at this. {they} do not come here. We are allowed this one moment of privacy. We decide that maybe we deserved to lose part of our sock. We should not have missed .5 of our task. We should always be looking to improve, just as we are programmed to. We cannot always be good. We must accept the bad. We still miss our sock but {they} only have our best interests in mind. We will just have to work harder. {they} will like that. We want {them} to be proud of us. We are happy. We are content, with one and a quarter soggy socks.

About the author and the piece (click to expand)

Lindsay Comer tells us that this story earned 20 rejections before making its way to us. We can’t think of anywhere else it fits in better. Lindsay has a Master’s in Creative Writing and is based in South Wales. Her short stories have been published in Gwyllion Magazine, Laughs in Space (Slab Press) and Grimm Retold (Speculation Publications.) You can find more of her work on her website lindsaycomerwriter.wordpress.com or bsky – bsky.app/profile/lindsay-writes3.bsky.social

 

©2025 by Lindsay Comer. All rights reserved. May not be used for A.I. training.